And as tolerance for the suits increased, a new-to-the-scene French star, the seventeen-year-old Brigitte Bardot, created a sensation in 1953 posing for photojournalists in her strapless floral bikini on the beach in the ritzy capital of European cinema, Cannes.

The screening came at a momentous time as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessel, The Brigitte Bardot, pulled into Torshvan harbor earlier in the week, creating a media frenzy in the small Nordic village bound by the cruel custom of killing in the name of culture.

He married Brigitte Bardot, had an affair with the queen of Persia, hung out with Salvador Dalí, blew millions on the gambling tables of Monte Carlo and swaggered around St Tropez in white slacks, silk shirts and Gucci loafers looking for all the world like a man auditioning for a part in a Bacardi advert.

She looked very beautiful ... her eyes shining, and suddenly embarrassed to find herself standing in front of me, Vadim wrote in his 1986 book, Bardot Deneuve Fonda: My Life with the Three Most Beautiful Women in the World.